Recently, there have been electronic devices (hereinafter referred to as devices) such as a printer and a printer adapter provided with a wireless interface. As an example, there is a printer on which printing can be performed from a PC (personal computer) via a wireless LAN access point (hereinafter referred to as an AP) in accordance with the 802.11b/g/a standard which is standardized by IEEE.
Wireless communication is influenced by the distance between an AP and a device, obstacles existing between them, the antenna characteristics (such as directionality and sensitivity) of the device, radio wave intensity and the like, and communication quality or communication speed changes depending on the state. If there is any factor that can be a bad condition, for example, the situation that the place where the device is installed is far away from the AP, it adversely affects the wireless communication, naturally. As a result, the normal operation of the device is impeded. To cope with this, there is a software program for measuring the radio wave condition of a wireless LAN connection interface mounted on a PC. There is also a system in which the radio wave condition of a child device, which is a device to be measured, is measured, and the measured radio wave condition is displayed on a parent device, as described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/119756 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-261676).
In many cases, device settings for realizing a desired wireless LAN connection is complicated and technical knowledge about a wireless LAN or a network is required, and it is difficult to set up a wireless LAN device.
In a setup method for setting up a wireless LAN via a wireless LAN interface, it is necessary to make wireless LAN communication settings for a PC so that they are appropriate for a device to be set up. That is, it is necessary to change the wireless operation mode, the connection ID (SSID) and the like of the PC to be appropriate for the device. Therefore, there is a problem that it may be impossible to perform setup without changing the wireless LAN settings for the PC which have enabled home wireless LAN communication until then. There is also the inconvenience that, when connecting a device to an AP, a user has to remember the SSID of the AP, and input and set the SSID. In order to solve such problems, a setup method has been considered in which setup of the wireless LAN interface of a device is performed with an interface other than the wireless LAN interface. For example, there has appeared a setup method in which, for example, a printer and a PC are connected with a USB cable, and the settings for the wireless LAN interface on the printer side are made from the PC via the USB interface.
In this case, in order to prepare the printer to be usually used, the flow shown below should be followed:
1) Temporarily place the printer within a range where it can be connected with the PC via a USB cable;
2) Connects the printer and the PC with a USB cable and executes the setup program for the printer on the PC; and
3) Removes the USB cable after the printer becomes normally connectable to a wireless LAN in the setup, place the printer where it is permanently to be set, and starts use of the printer.
As described above, in the setup method with the use of a wired interface such as a USB interface, a printer may be permanently installed after the setup without giving much consideration to the communication quality of a wireless LAN or a network. Therefore, even if the communication state is good when the printer is temporarily placed for setup, the communication state of the printer may be deteriorated at the place of permanent placement. For example, there may be a case where communication quality is deteriorated and printing cannot be performed with the original performance (such as printing speed) because the location relation between a printer and an AP, the location relation between the AP and a client PC, or the network connection configuration changes after permanent installation. There may be even a case where normal printing cannot be performed.
As a result, the user wastes paper and ink because of printing defects. Furthermore, it becomes necessary to again consider the location of the printer, which has already been permanently installed, and rearrange the printer so that printing can be normally performed with predetermined performance. This is inconvenient.
The communication performance between a client PC and a printer, which is to be an indicator for measuring the printing performance (printing speed), is determined by the entire communication route including the route between the client PC and the AP. Even when the radio wave condition is good, the entire route must be improved if the network route between the client PC and the printer is not good. Furthermore, in order to check the communication quality of a network required for the printer, it is necessary to check communication with the data amount to be transferred when printing is performed or the transfer speed used then. If printing is actually performed for confirmation, it will lead to waste of paper and ink.